Paulownia II

Paulownia II
8" x 10" Oil on board
Not for sale

Today is not the day to write about the fact that I'll never visit or paint the river again; that'll happen when the time is right - possibly when I post my final river painting. I was fortunate to spend several beautiful weekends at the river this summer and this was one such weekend in mid September.  I didn't quite capture the warmth of this scene as I had hoped, but I like the way it turned out.  I also learned through trying to remember the name of the tree on the left that the Japanese used to plant Paulownia trees when a baby girl was born. When the girl married, the tree was turned into a dresser and given to her as a wedding present. If I owned the river property and the Paulownia trees that line the road leading in to the house, I would certainly build Camlin, who first visited the river when she was two months old, a dresser.

Paulownia Tree

Paulownia Tree
5" x 7" oil on board
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This is looking across the field from below one of the Paulownia trees that line the road leading to the river house. I had a bunch of paint left over after completing an 8" x 10" painting of the same scene, so I did a quick palette knife painting.  I was leaving the next morning and didn't want the paint to go to waste.  My camera oversaturated the colors, as usual.

Apples with Cerulean Cup

Apples with Cerulean Cup
5" x 7" oil on board


Like a lot of my recent paintings, I painted this one quickly while Camlin was taking nap; sort of like how I'm writing this blog post...I guess it's good practice to get your thoughts down quickly.  Or maybe it's a shame that we have to cram everything into its own little window, even creative opportunities.

Last Rose

Last Rose
5" x 7" oil on board
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There was one sad little rose left on the bush in front of our house last week.  It was supposed to freeze that night, so I plucked it and put it in a jar in the kitchen window.  Then I had to paint it.  Since completing the painting, the rose opened up and became even more beautiful.  Sadly, I haven't had time to paint it again.  I'm happy with this one, though.

Cantaloupe II

Cantaloupe II
5" x 7" oil on board
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I had a lot of paint left over after I did finished the 8" x 10" (previous post), so I did this little one really quickly.  I like it.  The best thing about these paintings is the details that I left out.  For example, the plants on my patio and in my kitchen.

Cantaloupe I

Cantaloupe I
8" x 10" oil on board


From this painting, I learned how to spell cantaloupe.

Window Peaches

Window Peaches
8" x 10" oil on board


Some peaches in manganese violette, viridian, and cadmium yellow light.

Monocacy River Train Bridge

Monocacy River Train Bridge
8" x 10" oil on board
$70 plus shipping

Sadly, I am writing this post on the final day of summer vacation before I return to teaching and the stress of the school year. Summer photos have been uploaded and now it's time to scroll, achingly back through the wonderful experiences that I shared this summer and reassure myself that good times will return.

This painting is a reminder of one such experience. I was allowed out of the house for a day of fishing and painting, so I chose the Monocacy River, never having fished it before.  The Monocacy is beautiful and filled with fish.  I paddled upriver for a mile or so, casting along the way and catching tons of decent sized smallmouth bass. Once prime fishing hours had passed, I set up my easel in front of this train bridge and did my best. Amtrak passenger trains rumbled by occasionally as I painted, and when I was finished, I took a swim.

Crabtree Falls Trail

Crabtree Falls Trail
8" x 10" oil on board


My wife and I hiked Crabtree Falls trail the final morning of our wedding anniversary weekend in the mountains south of Charlottesville. It's a beautiful hike and it's popular, especially in October, so you have to get there early to avoid the crowds.

I went with manganese violet, viridian green, and yellow for this one. The sun was just coming up over the ridge in front of us, and I tried to capture the differences in color temperature from foreground to background and left to right.

Green Apple

Green Apple
6" x 6" oil on board
$40 plus shipping
Getting bored of the blue, red, yellow color scheme, so I'm trying out some new ones.  I think I used dioxazine purple, viridian green, and cadmium yellow light for this one.  I think.

Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon
8" x 10" oil on board
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Fedor Zakharov might be my new favorite painter. Of course that distinction changes from week to week. But what strikes me most about Zakharov and the Russian impressionists, aside from vibrant color schemes, super thick paint and brushstrokes, is the confidence that it takes to paint the way they do. It takes a lot of confidence to put down a stroke and leave it, knowing that while it may look out of place at the moment, you will bring it all together in the end.

I'm not comparing myself to Fedor Zakharov, but I think this painting and some of my recent work is a step in the right direction.  I'm starting to do more than just replicate what I see in front of me. I'm making decisions about value and tone, color scheme and temperature that go beyond recreating what I see. I can see a little more confidence when I look at this painting.

High Noon on the Patio - Forest Edge

High Noon on the Patio - Forest Edge

5" x 7" oil on gesso board


My camera had a hard time with this photo, distorting values and colors as usual...Either way, this is an interesting little painting.  I used a palette of quinacridone purple, cadmium orange, and viridian green because when I sat in my lawn chair, eating lunch and thinking about this painting the day before, that's what I saw. I took a photo and did my best to premix values before I went outside because I knew the light would change quickly. I painted this between 12 and 1pm. The color combination made it tough to match the variety of colors, especially the greens, but I think it worked and it was more about the values anyway. The round thing in the lower left quadrant is a soccer ball that my dog, Riley, has been slowly chewing through the last two years.  That's her water dish just above the ball. I really like the greenish shadow on the flower pot in front and the mid value orange on the ball.  The chair is actually black, and I could have made it nearly back, but I felt like that would distract from the ball and the flower pot.

Springtime on the Piankatank

Springtime on the Piankatank
8" x 16" oil on board
Not for sale

I painted this to hang over Camlin's crib (if it ever arrives).  Interestingly, I painted this over another painting that I didn't love and had never posted. I like working over paintings because you wind up with nice textures and you can let some of the original painting peek through, providing spots of color to break things up.

Counter-y Things

Counter-y Things
16" x 20" oil on board


My brain's a little fried at the moment from lack of sleep, so if you can think of a better name for this painting, I'm open to suggestions. This was one of those times when I was drawn in by an arrangement of objects that just had to be painted. All objects except for the cactus in the top left were positioned as they appear in the painting.  I felt like I needed another mass up there to balance things out, so I grabbed a cactus and went to work. I like the looseness of this painting.

Yellow Tomato with Glass

Yellow Tomato with Glass
5" x 7" oil on board


As usual, I had a hard time getting a good photo, but I really like the color scheme and simplicity of this one.

Mango

Mango
5" x 7" oil on board


My camera may have over-saturated the colors a bit, but this is close. Lately, I've been working exclusively with ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, and cadmium red light just to simplify things.  However, I couldn't make the green that I needed for the mango with those colors, so I added viridian for this one.  I attempted to paint this mango one stroke at a time and then leave it.

Has Been

Has Been
5" x 7" Oil on board


I'm managing to squeeze in some quick paintings between screams.  This one is really simple, but I like it.

Pink Ladies

Pink Ladies
5" x 7" oil on board
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I alternate between loving my paintings and hating them. How did painting become my passion? I'm not even sure. I don't have anything new to say or innovative to offer, so why do I do it? I wonder if I should focus my energy on something worthwhile like being a good dad or a better teacher?

I painted this on one of the many days sprinkled throughout the year that remind me of death and the brevity of life. In this case, the anniversary of my dad's death, which sometimes coincides with Mother's Day, reminding me of my mom's death.  But instead of cracking a beer and sitting on the couch in the dark, I painted.  And I thought about life.

Globes

Globes
5" x 7" oil on board


This is one that I nearly scrapped, not even halfway through painting. Quite often during the course of making a painting I find myself doubting or even hating what I've done. But, time and again, I've reached those points of despair, and I've found that if I work through them or even around them, focussing on something else for a while, they work themselves out. Often, the paintings that frustrate me the most in the beginning turn out to be the best paintings. And sometimes they're just terrible from start to finish...I think this one worked out ok though.

Black & Decker

Black & Decker
8" x 10" oil on board


This is my dad's old Black & Decker drill. I inherited most of his vast tool collection after he died, including things like furniture clamps, jig saws, hand saws for dove tailing, and other tools I'm not even sure what to do with. My brother inherited my dad's ability to use them effectively, but he was already in good supply of tools.

My dad's artistic outlet was his carpentry and metal working. Before the time of the internet and downloadable plans, he had an amazing ability to create furniture and even machines out of wood and scrap metal by just drawing them out or seeing a piece in a store or on TV and recreating from memory. I'm not positive that the Bowflex had even been invented when he fabricated his first home gym with bench press, lat pull down, row station, and even his own plate weights, cut out of scrap metal and linked together with cables, pulleys, and bearings.  It was pretty incredible.  I, on the other hand, experience the rage when I have to do something as simple as installing blinds in my baby's nursery.